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What do you like about the way Christmas is celebrated in Japan, and what don't you like about it?

28 Comments

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Christmas in Japan is just a huge anti-climax. The decorations are set up, the shops all play Christmas music and start selling all the Christmas garbage 2-3 months early. Then, suddenly, it's December 26.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Disillusioned...100% agree.

The 26th, you'd never know.

What I like is the fact that what they do do...they do pretty well.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

What I like:

I like seeing women walking around in cute outfits. Oh, but that happens all the time. I like feeling superior to everyone because I have nothing but contempt for KFC.

What I don't like:

Having an unrelenting contempt for KFC.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

I actually did the KFC Christmas dinner maybe 5-6 years ago, and say what you want, the chicken was absolutely delicious.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Fair enough. I have never had KFC, so I admit that my contempt is arbitrary and possibly misplaced.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I like the Christmas cakes, illuminations, grilled chicken and seeing my kids happy faces when we got them Christmas presents.

One suggestion maybe more people singing live Christmas carols in the streets would be nice.

Nothing that I don't like as the only thing I'll ever need for Christmas is the joy of my family.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Christmas isn't celebrated in Japan. Everything finishes on Christmas Eve.

I loathe Christmas in Japan so much I now go home if I can to celebrate. I hate KFC and that vile strawberry cake. I hate the badly decorated trees and shops with Santas and those awful ads for TokyoDisney and Universal Studios. I hate it isn't a public holiday. So depressing.

Here in the UK we have several days off, tons of decent food and booze for non-stop indulgence and everyone has a laugh and goes to the pub. Why would I stay in Japan?

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Luddite

I can't get back to Scotland this year. Boo hoo!

Will be spending Christmas alone in Japan. But I have bagged myself a turkey (or at least the promise of one) so I'm going to cook a nice dinner for myself...roast tatties too.

One thing you can't get in Japan is a nice dinner that doesn't skimp.

Xmas dinner is all about seconds!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Show me the way Reckless! :)

........please!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Roast your own chicken and stay clear of the foul butter cream cakes and things aren't too bad.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Wrembreck

Is that cooking advice or some clever euphemism?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I don’t like that most people have never heard of Hanukkah here.

I don’t mind most of the tunes I hear walking around, with the exception of the super Jesusy ones.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ is appalling to hear but it isn’t as bad as ‘When a child is born’ by Johnny Mathis.

Christmas is reasonably acceptable here.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I like the the songs and the lights.

The food is awful - I avoid the dead birds and strawberry cream cakes and make my own mincemeat/mincepies, fruitcake with marzipan & icing, stollen, stuffing, chestnut 'sausage' rolls and a veggie main. A friend sends me a very welcome pud every year.

I think it's sad when we go to ToyRUs etc., in the lead-up to Christmas and parents are shopping with their kids. Where's the magic?

The neighbours think I'm weird/lazy cos the decorations stay up until Twelfth Night.

The absolute worst thing about Christmas in Japan is that it ends on the 24th.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Like:  KFC.  Cute Santas.  Illuminations.  Snow (sometimes).

Don't:  Endless Xmas tunes everywhere.  Even more crazed shopping.  Immigrants whining about how it ain't as great here as at home.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

What I like: see pic above

What I don' like: Gaijins griping about KFC or December 26th.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

I don’t like that most people have never heard of Hanukkah here. 

Just a tad off-topic eh? ; )

The food is awful -

I think it's sad when we go to ToyRUs etc.,

Too funny

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

@maybeperhapsyes

Take it anyway you like ;)

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The biggest problem is that there is no real "holiday season" here. Back home, the whole time is 2-3 weeks of football, nachos, and hot turkey sandwiches. Christmas and New Year's blend together seamlessly.

In Japan, there is a huge rush for Christmas to be over because New Year's is coming up soon! There is no way to reconcile the two holidays because they are from such different cultural traditions. So, the game is on to get the Christmas stuff put away and get out the traditional Japanese decorations for Gantan. That's why it is so jarring to foreigners- no restful time between Christmas and New Year's to digest the mountains of food we eat and take back gifts we don't like. It's as if someone threw a switch and Japan suddenly reverted back to the Edo era.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

For me X-Mas us all about the Family get-together in the 24th, no special food, etc.

I have experienced X-Mas in a few countries and all celebrated it different to my own.

Hate the commercialisation that now exists in many countries, dislike that 25th here is most about couples, hate 'Last Christmas', "Jingle Bells(truly Thanksgiving song not X-Mas). Love 'Christmas Eve'(Yamashita Tatsuro).

But interesting to see the different cultures and customs.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Christmas in Japan is mere greedy business.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Likes: getting gifts

Dislikes: giving gifts

Oh wait, reverse that - likes giving the gifts of love, lol

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Likes: they’ve taken religion out of celebrating Christmas - go to KFC then a love hotel and call it a night.

Dislikes: It ends so quick.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

As long as I don't hear "Wonderful Christmas Time", by Paul McCartney, it's generally a like.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I just think it's really odd here. There's so much build-up but then it's just a normal working day and no-one does anything special. It's especially weird coming off of Halloween, which clearly does a payoff (in the Tokyo area at least).

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Likes: There's no religious far-right whinging about how you're not celebrating Christmas correctly.

Dislikes: There's instead a broad group of foreigners whinging about how you're not celebrating Christmas correctly.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

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